At the Microsoft Build 2017 conference in Seattle this past week, 3D application and game platform Unity, partnering with Microsoft, launched a contest that drives HoloLens developers to realize their ideas into a full-fledged application and possibly win money for it.

Submissions began being accepted for the HoloLens Contest on May 10. To enter, a developer will simply submit an idea in the form of art, video, or thorough explanation before June 10. Microsoft and Unity will go through the ideas and select 10 finalists. Each finalist will receive a HoloLens developers kit on loan to help them make their idea.

Finalists will be given from June 16, the day the finalists are announced, to October 30 to complete their idea. Three winners will receive portions of a $150,000 prize pool broken down to $100,000, $30,000, and $20,000, while also receiving 12 months of Unity Pro. Also, 5 honorable mentions will be getting the 12-month subscription to Unity Pro as well. All winners and honorable mentions will be revealed in November.

While Unity is mostly known as a game development platform, this contest seems to be aimed less at entertainment and more at creating useful applications. As stated just below the criteria: "We want to see how your ideas and content can help solve real-world problems today."

Developers, it's time to load up Unity and Visual Studio and get to coding. Find the elusive use-case that will change the world. If you are still new at this, you can check out our HoloLens tutorial collection to get you over the initial hump and maybe even inspire an idea or two.